DISTINCTIVE beers from dozens of different breweries were being enjoyed by drinkers at the resurrected York Beer Festival this weekend. We still enjoy such a choice of beers thanks to festival organisers the Campaign for Real Ale - and in particular to its founders, including Hal Taylor.

Hal returned to the De Grey Rooms this week, bringing with him memorabilia from the first such festival in the city 25 years ago.

The former Nunthorpe School pupil now lives in Berkshire. He has two brothers: Bob, who still lives in York, and Eric, who moved to the south of France a few years ago.

Ironically, it was Eric who alerted him to this year's beer festival, forwarding him a copy of York CAMRA magazine the Ouse Boozer that had been sent to him in France.

This sent Hal down memory lane. A pilot who spent 20 years flying in the Royal Air Force and the same time again with a civilian airline, he was living in London when he helped found CAMRA in 1972.

Originally called the Campaign For The Preservation Of Real Ale, it was launched by groups in London and Manchester to save real beer. Hal's wife Iona was also deeply involved.

"A lot of breweries were producing muck," Hal said. "They came up with the bright idea of creating pre-rack beer and keg beer: we called it boiled beer because it was pasteurised."

As Watney's Red Barrel began dominating Britain's pubs, crafted ales were disappearing. CAMRA made it clear that there were still many customers who wanted the real thing.

The campaign took off. Membership was only 25p and branches began springing up all over the country.

Mr Taylor, whose mother Jennie ran a well-known catering firm in York, used his contacts in the city to help establish a CAMRA branch here.

Its first AGM took place in the Golden Slipper, Goodramgate, in 1973. The following year it hosted the first national CAMRA convention outside London or Manchester.

The debates took place in Tempest Anderson Hall, and a beer festival was held at the De Grey Rooms. Delegates were given a pub guide to York - a sheet of paper with 15 venues on it.

They tucked into a £1 steak meal, and a nine gallon barrel of beer cost a little over £6.

Thanks to pioneers like Hal Taylor, we now have a huge choice of brews to choose from, mostly from small breweries. But there is always that threat from keg beer.

"The trouble is there's all this advertising for keg beers, but you never see real beers advertised," he said. "Real ales are subsidising lagers. They could be a lot cheaper if so much money was not spent on advertising lagers."

Among his personal favourites are Wadworth 6X and West Berkshire Bitter from his local micro-brewer, Dave Maggs. If you ever get the chance to try Maggs' Magnificent Mild, snap it up, says Hal.

These days he is working to restore a 1949 Meteor plane. Once it is airborne it will "probably be the oldest aircraft in the world flying".

In his early days as a pilot, he would hop over to a Raskelf pub from Topcliffe airfield by plane. That brought a whole new meaning to the term "dropping in for a pint".

A display of Hal's CAMRA memorabilia is on at the York Beer Festival, which finishes tonight with a ticket-only session.

ALL sorts of fun and games are likely when the Yearsley Grove in York hosts its first Ann Summers party. Ladies Night was the idea of Tracy Merrills, who took over the Huntington Road pub earlier this year.

A local Ann Summers organiser will be bringing a selection of "lingerie and toys" for the women-only event, held behind closed doors in one of the pub's rooms on Tuesday at 8.30pm.

Already "quite a lot of locals" have signed up. Tracy's partner Steve Parker will still be serving the men.

Tonight at the pub, popular beat combo Aldo's Orphans play live from 9pm.